Her Undeniable Temptation

“No, see! uh, you weren’t supposed to know. She wanted it to be a surprise.” Zoe said quietly. It was a long moment before he asked the question Zoe had been dreading. “Then why did you tell me?” Alex asked and she looked away.

How could she answer this question without completely revealing how much she was in love with him. “Wait, waoh! Liked not love, right? Zoe, you don’t love Alex. What the f..ck is wrong with my brains today?” She scoffed.

“Zoe, come on why did you tell me?” Alex asked again, almost impatient, she looked up into his seriously blue eyes and lied.

“You don’t know Bella for this short while the way I do know her, when Bella gets ideas in her head it is totally impossible to stop her! I know she isn’t ready for this and I would be damned to sit and watch her get hurt, especially from a guy who doesn’t share her feelings.” Zoe said having no freaking idea why she had to throw out the last part but she felt bad almost immediately because of Alex’s expression.

Alex looked quite upset but he was trying to hide it. Mixed with that tiny exhaustion Zoe had seen when he first arrived and that made Zoe feel like an awful and a real mean person, she turned her back on him pretending to check the ice cream machine.

She couldn’t just bear Alex’s expressions. It was a Stab to her face! The bell on the front door clicked so she assumed Alex had already left but a hand on her arm told her that he hadn’t.

His hand gripped her elbow before swiveling her back to face him. His face had changed! There wasn’t any sign of him being upset, not even the exhaustion showed, it was like he was wearing a mask on.

“Zoe, thank you for telling me what Bella was planning! I have to go, have a nice day,” he said tonelessly and left, Zoe watched him go and felt her eyes sting with tears! She quickly wiped them away and resumed work.

The rest of Friday sucked. She went straight home after work, took a bunch of nasty coughing narcotics, and drifted to sleep. Since it was the weekend she didn’t set an alarm on her glued alarm watch, the treatment helped her sleep till it was almost noon.

She woke up and filled her head with all kinds of pointless stuff so that it wouldn’t go back to her and Alex’s conversation yesterday but of course, Alex wasn’t easy to not talk about. “What was he doing right now?” “What was Bella also doing right now?” Zoe practically spent her whole day worrying.

Alex had thanked her for informing him about Bella’s plan but what if! What was he going to do about it? Around six, a knock downstairs got her hurrying to the door, maybe it was Alex needing to talk some more! Seeing Luke’s expensive car parked outside the garage made her heart sink.

She had totally forgotten about what they were going to do, Crap! She opened the door to notice Luke excited and happy face, he looked so hot and smelled so good! Zoe did want to be with him but not today.

Seeing her expression and his smile flattened. “Hey Zoe, what’s wrong?” Luke asked with much concern in his voice, ugh! He was concerned for her and she was about to disappoint him. She Frowned at her thought.

“Oh, please don’t tell me you forgot about our night? You were the person who picked the date we set.” Luke said clearly frustrated and probably angry too.

He had all the right to be angry. “I’m so, so, so truly sorry Luke! I mean tomorrow we can still go through with it, I promise.” Zoe said, almost pleading. “I can’t believe this Zoe! It can’t be tomorrow, everything was ready for tonight, the hotel, our dinner reservation, all our parents being busy.” Luke muttered.

Yeah, he was definitely pissed with her.

Since we were both still standing in the doorway! Bella’s car pulled up next to Luke’s. She rushed out of her car up to the porch like a bat out of hell, her face was rebellious! Zoe was definitely in trouble.

Luke leaned out of her way. “What the hell?” Bella practically yelled. “Uhh, hum?” Zoe mumbled trying to be clueless.

Bella gave a humorless laugh. “Oh, don’t even pretend you don’t know what this is about.” Bella spit.

“uh, maybe I should go?” Luke muttered.

Luke hasn’t been leaving with us since he found out that Lilian wasn’t his real mother and that he was just adopted. Not like he was mad at her! Just that he was still angry and needed to clear his head.

Bella waved Luke off. “Don’t, this would only take a minute.” She said, “Did you or did you not tip Alex off about me wanting to sleep with him,” Bella asked quietly, out of the corner of Zoe’s eye. She could see Luke’s eye shoot up.

“Bella?” Zoe tried saying but she shut her up. “Answer the Goddamn question!” She said mopping uneasily. “Bella, I didn’t want this to end badly for you or for you to get hurt! I’m so sorry.” Zoe said, feeling nervous.

“How could you do this to me, Zoe? Even after I told you I loved him! You knew how important this was to me.” Bella cried angrily.

“What really happened?” Zoe asked, afraid of the answer she might give! Bella glared at her. “He turned me down, it was totally horrible and humiliating!” Bella said running her hands into her messy hair, she looked on the verge of tears.

It felt as though a huge weight was lifted from Zoe’s chest. Alex had turned her down which made a small creepy smile foam on Zoe’s face. “I think I would go now, just thought I’d say thank you for ruining everything!” Bella said and ran back to her car before Zoe could see her tears prickle.

Zoe sighed and glanced up at Luke. She figured he would feel sympathetic for her since she was yelled at by her close friend, instead, he looked more pissed off. “What?” Zoe mumbled with an arched brow.

“Did you ruin her plans with that Alex guy?” Luke demanded. “Uh, oh.” Zoe shook her head quickly. “No Luke, not intentionally! I didn’t know he was going to turn her down.” Zoe said, trying to explain. “But you were hoping he would, right?” Luke asked.

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Zoe demanded. “Nothing Zoe, I have to go, looks like my night is free,” Luke said walking down the steps.

“Luke?” She called repeatedly but he ignored her and left. Great, real freakin great! Not only has she sabotaged Bella’s plan with Alex but she has succeeded in demolishing her plans with Luke as well. Zoe was such an incredible person.